For those of you who are on Facebook, you will have seen my speech on Universal Credit. I make no apology for speaking with such passion about these issues – it’s about time they heard it.

Labour defeated the Government last week. 12 of their own MPs signed an open letter to the Secretary of State, calling on him to pause the roll-out.

The Conservative Government wants to ignore the fact that it lost this vote and plans to press on regardless.

I became a single parent when my son was 14 months old. At the time, I was working as a teacher and I had no option but to drop my hours.

I went for weeks providing my son with the nutritional meals that he needed, whilst sustaining myself on breakfast cereal.

I can remember, as though it were yesterday, struggling to make my rent commitments and pay the bills whilst all the time having to stay strong for my baby boy.

So it saddens me – and it sickens me – when I hear the Conservatives, preaching from their position of privilege, about how the six-week wait for Universal Credit will help to educate people to better manage their finances.

If this is true, then they are completely out of touch.

I suspect, however, that this has more to do with penny-pinching than it does with ‘educating’ us.

The six-week wait is forcing ordinary working families into rent arrears, more debt, hunger and even homelessness.

With wages in Crewe & Nantwich below the UK average and with Crewe being one of the most indebted places in the UK, ordinary working people literally cannot afford to take any more punishment. 230,000 of the claimants are in work.

We keep hearing the stock defence – that Universal Credit is getting more people into work. What type of work is that? Secure work? Work that pays a real living wage?

We all know what lies behind those unemployment figures – poverty pay and precarious work.

We were told that this policy would “make work pay” but the IFS says that a further three million working families will be made, on average, £2500 a year worse off.

The Government has finally listened to Labour and stopped ripping people off with its premium charge helpline.

Now they need to listen to the calls of charities and councils and immediately pause and fix the roll out of Universal Credit, before more people are pushed into desperation.

I intend to speak again on this issue today (Wednesday, October 25). I will be calling on the Government to use a pause to stop the rapid increase in the number being brought under their programme.

And I will ask the Secretary of State to also outline his response to the many concerns that have been brought to his attention for a second time.

This is the Government’s last chance to show that it has some heart – that it can see sense – that it respects the vote in the House of Commons – or else it risks consigning itself to the dustbin of history – as a Government that lacks compassion, competence and credibility in equal measure.